Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Vinyl Ripping Issue

Chris. Aubrey-Smith wrote:
> O.K. , already!
>
> All very interesting, but I want simply to digitise my old vinyl
> collection, to a reasonable sound quality, without spending a fortune
> in the process.
>
> How do I go about this?

I bought a Pro-ject USB phono stage for £75 (new) plus the Pro-ject
Debut II deck for about £50-ish (used, ebay), and the rest of the
equipment I already had.

Currently I am using a reasonably powerful Dell dual-core laptop running
Puppy 4.11 from a USB stick to record from the above. I fire up
Gramofile to do this but Audacity will serve just as well if not better.
Gramofile ships with some pre-set filters for processing the pops and
clicks down to an acceptable level, while Audacity provides the fine
control for targeting and repairing individual scratches, so I use a
combination of the two. I record and process wit Gramofile, before
dicing up the tracks (Gramofile will guess at this for you but I pass on
that option) and tidying up the scratches with Audacity.

Previously I have piped the sound directly from the phono stage line out
to the line in on the laptop and got good results - thereby cutting out
the need for the cost of the USB phone stage, but with the added
inconvenience of having to faff around behind the amp every time I want
to convert from vinyl to digital.

I am thankfully /not/ blessed with audiophile ears* and am quite happy
with the results I am getting, when the level happens to be right. I
made a copy of an album for a mate the other day (his album, his copy)
and he was thrilled with it, so I guess either it can't be too bad a set
up or we've both knackered our hearing!

Sean

* they can cost you dear!


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